I'm totally stumped........... I have a theory, but I'm not sure..... Help!

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That is fine, I can live with that temp. But when I'm running WinApps with about 50% CPU load, my temps reach 50c. That is way to hot for me and I think that is a huge swing for 50% load. Also, when 3D gaming or CD Burning, at 100% CPU load, my temps reach 60+c as seen here:

This temp is entirely to damn hot!!! I think that a 34 degree temp swing from idle is ridiculous. I don't believe my heatsink is doing it's job properly. I think my blowhole is doing most of the cooling here. I have tried several things:

Nothing seems to help except when I bend my ALPHA clip to apply more pressure. When I do this, the temps are much better for a day or so. Then it seems like the clip gets weak again. My theory is that since my ALPHA clip is old and been used for peltiers, ss7 chips, etc. that it is to weak and won't hold the proper pressure to keep good contact with the CPU core hence not cooling up to capacity.

Do you guys think this theory is right? I have a new GlobalWin FOP38 on order, but it's going to be a few days yet before it gets here. I'd like to get this figured out soon. Suggestions and ideas would be helpful and appreciated!

You will probably find it is the heatsink. you also have a 1.86v vcore and are running at 950mhz all adding to the heat.

You will also get a big difference between idle temp and half/full load as it appears you are running a CPU idle program. If you are not using CPU idle or Rain, Windows is most likely running it's own CPU idle software called Msidle, (do a search in C: for it) If you find it try to delete it. If you can't Windows is using it. You must have some kind of HLT software to get 30C idle with a 29C system temp. Go into the Bios and see what you idle temp is with out Windows running.

I recently reduced my temps significantly with a heatsink change:-

Currently running a 1Gig T-bird @ 1.2Gig and I was using a Hedgehog Copper heatsink.

To get stable at 1.2gig I am using a KT7 Raid with an unlocked Cpu (penciled bridges) running at 1.9v, (set to 1.85 but giving 1.9)

The above would get too much for the Hedgehog after extended gaming periods and eventually get to 60C !!!!!!!!!!!
This is with plenty of fans in the heatsink area as well.

I had a spare Alpha P3125 (slot 1) heatsink kicking about so I cut and ground out relief holes for the capacitors and other obstructions while still keeping the maximium size of the oblong heatsink.

This has resulted in a gaming max of 41c and an idle of 25c (with Msidle) in a room temp of 23C. I have one "Alpha" fan on top of the Alpha sucking and two below blowing.

This is still temporary as water cooling coming soon to remove ALL fans from my system.

This is a copper shim for Durons and T-birds which helps heat transfer and heatsink stability.

here's the other copper spacer i meant to put up earlier which might help add pressure to the clip. if they weren't so fragile or pressure sensitive i'd say grab another clip and use it for the time being but having heard the problems a few months ago with the wrong h/f from another company think we all know about that.http://www.3dcool.com/thunderbirdspacer.shtml

Well, I did a search and no MSidle anywhere to be found. I searched a couple of times. I have a lot of airflow in the case so a 3-4c difference between case temp and CPU core at idle doesn't seem unbelievable... Right now, surfing the net, running WinAmp, the temps are 27c internal with 41c CPU core temp. I think it's the heatsink giving me the problems.....

I like the idea of the copper spacer. Do you need to run thermal grease all over the spacer or just lay it in place to aid in heat transfer? I've seen the Step heatsinks before but I don't know anyone who is running one so I haven't considered them. I've heard a lot of great things about the FOP38 due to the Delta fan. I geuss I'll know more when it gets here. I also have an older GlobalWin FEP32 that I might be able to fit to the board with a little grinding!

I'll have to order some Arctic Silver and maybe one of those spacers. Thanks for the reply guys!

Any other ideas / suggestions??? I'll post when I get it figured out.....

The Step Thermo HSF leave plenty to be desired IMHO. The design of the HSF looks to be inherently poor and the quality is shoddy too. On a Step Thermo Athy 600 @ 750 they used a relatively small/short finned heatsink about 3/4 inch height and 4 pieces 60mm fans stacked 2 high. In a period of 1 year, 3 of those 4 fans failed and because they used low profile (10mm height) fans instead of regular 25mm height fans they had low CFMs and were noisy too (due to double stacking). I ended up recommending 2x YS Tech 60mm fans and they performed better (4°C improvement with consistant case temp) and were quieter.

The only thing special about Step's HSF is they used a thermal epoxy to bond the heatsink to the decased processor. I was not impressed.

Also are you using thermal grease or silver grease (or even the thermal pad)? The grease seems to break down after about 2-5 days when my Duron was at 950Mhz. At 900Mhz it takes about a month for the temp to go up about 1'C. It looks like AMD was right about the need for thermal pads. I used one on onther Duron at 900Mhz and a GlobalWin FOP32-1 and it runs 33-37'C (and that was after 3 hours of Nascar3).

Another trick is too reverse the fan. This dropped my temp by about 3'C. It might help stablize the max temp.

But more than likely it is the clip. If you can not mantain good suface contact with the CPU, than the temp will keep rising.

WARNING*****************************
Also, does the Alpha have a lip along one edge of the heatsink to stabalise it. If it does, you are in trouble. That lip is too high for the SocketA CPU's. You need to file that lip off so the heatsink will sit FLAT on the CPU. I had this problem with my heatsink (again from a K6-2 system with a YS-Tech 60mm fan added). My system kept locking up and would run VERY hot (about the same as with the stock heatsink it shipped with) at only 850Mhz.

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The COMPUTER is your FRIEND!
Happiness is manditory.

I'll agree wholeheartedly about the not-so-great quality of the STEP products. I was stupid enough to buy the slot-a version (and am regretting it to this day). Any company that has to toot their own horn as much as they do must be blowing smoke up your a** to cover the truth. My step was (is) loud as a jet engine and I don't think much of its cooling ability either. I'd tear the thing off if it wasn't epoxied to the cpu like it is...so in short, I wouldn't mess with them. Better off taking your chances on your own.